Editor’s note - Over the past six months the
Secretariat has again received a large number of
publications, more than space allows in this section of SCN
News. We are very grateful
to the many authors, printers and publishers who have sent
copies of their work.
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Holding Corporations Accountable: Corporate Conduct, International Codes and Citizen Action Judith Richter, Zed Books Ltd, 2001, 241 pp. In today's world, partnership and dialogue between the private and public sector are very much the order of the day. Whether these partnerships do right or wrong is subject to a heated debate. Holding Corporations Accountable by Judith Richter is an interesting contribution to this debate and exposes the complex factors and risks involved plus the implications often hidden behind the scenes. For example, the full story behind corporate public relations strategies and activities is relatively unknown to the public. The book focuses on the question of how to effectively regulate large transnational corporations in the interest of public health. Richter stresses the need to review the usefulness of international regulatory codes as effective tools for raising public awareness and maintaining pressure on corporations to change practices that are clearly detrimental to the health and well being of society. Issued on the 20th anniversary of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, the book focuses on the Code as a case study. Richter describes in some detail how the Code came into being and how socio-political and commercial factors influenced its development. The roles of the various actors - including the international UN agencies and civil society organizations such as the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) - in the preparation and implementation of the Code are highlighted. While it may seem discouraging that only 24 out of 191 countries have so far implemented most of the Code and subsequent World Health Assembly resolutions as national legislation, Richter shows how the Code's implementation has been delayed and in some cases derailed by industry influence. The book reawakens the debate on the effectiveness of self-regulatory and co-regulatory mechanisms as applied by large corporations versus the effectiveness of international regulation by governments, international agencies and civil society. Self-regulation implies the formulation of voluntary industry codes that, more often than not, fall short of international standards and are difficult to monitor externally. The book uses clear and easy language. It explains rather difficult concepts such as globalization and global governance in simple terms. The complexity of international trade organizations, the power structures involved both nationally and internationally, as well as how they reflect prevailing social dynamics are carefully discussed and clarified. Past and present examples are fittingly given. The book is well referenced, a fact that adds to the credibility of its arguments. In our personal contacts with the private sector, we should all perhaps ask ourselves the questions ”who is who?, what interests do they represent?, who should be doing what?, and with whom?”. Richter gives several concrete suggestions for new ways to encourage the public accountability of corporations based on more democratic decision-making processes. Reviewed by Amal Omer-Salim, Nutritionist, Department of
Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University,
Sweden |
THE STATE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE 2001: Economic Impacts
of Trans-boundary Plant Pests and Animal Diseases
FAO, 2001, 295 pp.
The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) monitors the global agricultural situation and overall economic environment surrounding world agriculture. This year’s report presents a study on the cost of hunger and features the issue of transboundary plant pests and animal diseases.
The report notes that by raising the per capita energy intake to 2770 kcals in countries where it is below that level could increase the per capita GDP growth in some countries by between 0.34 and 1.48 percentage points per year. The report also notes that during the 1996-98 period, some 826m people worldwide faced a shortfall in their basic daily energy requirements of 100-400 kcals. A chapter on the cost of hunger argues that improved nutrition could have a substantial impact on welfare and economic growth. Moreover nutrition raises returns on investments in education and health care. The impact of nutrition on labour productivity, on health and school performance and economic growth are reviewed. Notes at the end of each chapter provide references to the research literature, as well as comments on some of the controversies concerning nutrition indicators and cut-offs.
In a special chapter on transboundary plant pests and animal diseases, FAO warns that the spread of emergent diseases and invasive species has increased in recent years. These threats result in major economic losses for crop and livestock producers. Even though significant technological progress has been made in combating transboundary plant pests and diseases, FAO reports it is not enough. The organization calls for increased regional and international co-operation in these areas.
The book comes with a CD-ROM that contains time series data for 150 countries, country groups and regions in English, French and Spanish. The book is also available from the FAO website: www.fao.org.
THE STATE OF FOOD INSECURITY IN THE WORLD
2001
FAO, 2001, 58 pp.
This report is quoted in several of the feature articles in this issue of SCN News. Now a yearly publication, it is very readable and contains a large number of practical examples of actions against food insecurity and poverty. It also contains FAO’s estimates of numbers underfed, which are revised annually as more information becomes available. There were 815m underfed people in the world in the 1997-99 period: 777m in developing countries, 27m in transition countries and 11m in the industrialized world. For developing countries, the average annual decrease now stands at about 6m people.
The report argues that world food production must continue to grow so that the Summit target can be met in all countries, however, a smaller increase in production would suffice if its growth were accompanied by more equitable access to food. This could be achieved through redistribution - of food itself, of the means of producing it or of the purchasing power needed to buy it. Unfortunately, the experience of the past thirty years shows no significant decline in inequity of access among households in most countries.
The report stresses that countries that performed best in terms of reducing hunger, had made significantly higher investments and achieved greater productivity in agriculture than others. The worst performers even failed to prevent a decline in the capital stock per agricultural worker during the 90s, compounded by a steep decline in the flow of external assistance to their agriculture.
The full report is downloadable at: http://www.fao.org/sof/sofi/index_en.htm
THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2002:
Leadership
UNICEF, 103 pp., with a Foreword by Kofi
Annan
“Can there be a greater test of leadership than the task of ensuring these freedoms for every child, in every country, without exception?” asks Kofi Annan in the foreword of the latest The State of the World’s Children. This year’s report focuses attention on the leadership that turned commitments made at the 1990 World Summit for Children (WSC) into actions to improve the lives of children and families and the leadership still needed to ensure the right of every child to live in health, peace and dignity.
The opening section, Birth and the broken promises, reviews the progress made since the 1990 WSC when the cause of children was put at the top of the world’s agenda. Although there have been a number of success stories concerning reductions in child mortality, polio and vitamin A and iodine deficiencies, many goals have fallen short of their mark. The report stresses that there still remains much work to be done. “Ensuring the rights and well-being of children is the key to sustained development in a country and to peace and security in the world. Meeting this responsibility, fully consistently and at any cost, is the essence of leadership”, the report states.
The next section, To change the world with children, stresses the importance of children’s participation in transforming the environment in which they live. Based on rights established in the 1989 Convention of the Rights of the Child, children are seen as active and contributing members of the family, community and society. Recently, The Global Movement for Children, an initiative by six leading aid organizations, promoted actions to ensure that children’s voices are heard through the ‘Say Yes for Children’ campaign, launched in March 2001. The campaign encourages public discussion about the rights of the child and gathers pledges from millions of people who believe that every child has the right to live in health, peace and dignity.
The final section, Actions that can change the world, outlines a number of steps that can significantly improve the quality of a child’s life. In all countries there are a number of actions leaders can take to promote the rights of the child. Investing in children through basic social services is noted as a key strategy to sustained development. UNICEF quotes the World Bank as saying that, along with good macroeconomic management, one of the significant reasons that the countries of East Asia were so much more successful (in sustained development) than those of Sub-Saharan Africa is that they had invested heavily in children in the preceding decades.
The full report is downloadable at: www. unicef.org
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PLEASE CONTINUE |
UNDP, 2001, 264 pp.
This year’s Human Development Report takes a provocative look at the potential uses of technology in improving people’s lives in developing countries. As in previous years, this UNDP report ranks the level of human development in 162 countries.
The report claims that the 20th century’s unprecedented gains in advancing human development and eradicating poverty came largely from technological breakthroughs. Further, that the reduction in undernutrition in South Asia from 40% in the late 70s to 23% in 1997, and the end of chronic famine, was made possible by technological breakthroughs in plant breeding, fertilizers and pesticides in the 60s that doubled world cereal yields in just 40 years. The report notes that, in contrast, it took 1000 years for English wheat yields to quadruple.
The report argues that new technologies can play an important role in reducing world poverty, and refutes the view that technology is primarily a luxury for people in rich countries. The report challenges those sceptics of technology and points to the potential of such advances as biotechnology and information and communications technology (ICT). UNDP acknowledges the disputes over intellectual property rights, the shortage of skilled personnel, and weak ICT strategies as some of the major challenges facing developing countries.
The report encourages the development of public policies that manage these unknown risks and make sure inequalities are not widened within developing countries. The report argues that without receptive and innovative public policies, these technologies could become a source of exclusion rather than a tool of progress.
The report is downloadable at the UNDP website: www.undp.org.
AIDING RECOVERY? The Crisis of AID in Chronic Political Emergencies
Joanna Macrae, Zed Books in association
with ODI, 2001, 191 pp.
In AIDING RECOVERY, Joanna Macrae calls for a new framework to deal with the management of aid in countries suffering chronic political emergencies. The book begins by giving a historical background of aid from decolonization to the Cold War and presents the ‘New’ Aid Orthodoxy that emerged during the 90s. The author notes that, “...insecurity and failures of governance are now the major obstacles to aid reaching those most in need.”
The author then goes on to make a comparative analysis of how war in Cambodia, Ethiopia and Uganda impacted on their public health systems and focuses on the international organizations' response in providing aid to sustain them. The author finds that most aid agencies wrongly assume the presence of a stable, sovereign state. In fact, in the absence of public policy-making authorities, aid actually becomes fragmented and cannot contribute to build locally sustainable programmes.
Macrae concludes that improving aid procedures alone will not resolve the problem. A fundamental review of aid strategies is needed. Aid can and should play a role in the management of conflict.
This book is available by contacting Zed Books Ltd., 7
Cynthia Street, London N1 9JF, UK.
Web: www. Zedbooks.demon.co.uk
A BETTER WORLD IN 2020: Wake-up Calls from the Next Generation
International Food Policy
Research Institute, 2001, 32 pp.
For IFPRI’s Sustainable Food Security For All By 2020 international conference in Bonn, Germany in September 2001, young people were invited to show in pictures and words how they saw the world in 2020. They were asked what should be done about it. More than 600 youngsters from about two dozen countries participated in the poster and essay competition. This creative and colourful booklet contains the winning posters and essays, as well as excerpts from other submissions showing a wide range of perspectives on the world of 2020.
This booklet is available from IFPRI, 2033 K Street NW, Washington DC, 20006-1002 USA. Email: ifpri@cgiar.org. Web: www.ifpri.org
EMPOWERING WOMEN TO ACHIEVE FOOD SECURITY: A 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment, Focus 6
Edited by Agnes Quisumbing and Ruth Meinzen-Dick, 2001, 24 pp.
This set of policy briefs focuses on the role women play in food security and the entitlements women need to be effectively empowered to achieve food security. Policies proposed consider different strategies for empowering women by strengthening their asset base - natural and physical capital, human capital, social and financial capital - and by providing the legal and institutional framework to guarantee their command over resources. The package includes 2-page write ups on land rights, rights to livestock, technology, education, micro-finance and others. Quoting extensively from the ACC/SCN’s 4th Report on the World Nutrition Situation (2000), the section on health and nutrition argues that a adopting a life-cycle approach to both the analysis of nutrition problems and the choice of interventions helps to emphasize that nutritional status is cumulative over time.
This book is available from IFPRI, 2033 K Street NW, Washington D.C., 20006-1002, USA. Email: ifpri@cgiar.org Web: www.ifpri.org.
WHO WILL BE FED IN THE 21ST
CENTURY?
Challenges for Science and Policy
IFPRI, 2001, 102 pp.
“Global food production has more than doubled over the past 40 years, growing faster than population, and will likely keep pace with demographic growth into the 21st century,” states this new book edited by K. Wiebe, N. Ballenger, and P. Pinstrup-Andersen. But one-eighth of the world’s people remain food insecure, leaving us with the question Who will be Fed in the 21st Century?
Contributions to this book were first discussed at a symposium in February 2000 organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Contributors to this book show how soil degradation, biotechnology and conflict affect the future supply of food of the poor. Markets will also continue to supply sufficient food to those with money to spend, but getting food to the poor will require that government policies and investments protect the natural resources on which agriculture depends. They must also focus on the benefits of agricultural research and ensure that access to food, resources, and income-generating opportunities are equitable and secure.
The book concludes by stating “A food-secure world is reachable if revolutionary developments in information technology and biotechnology can be mobilized for the benefit of the poor and the food insecure in developing countries.”
This book is available by contacting The Johns Hopkins University Press, P.O. Box 50370, Baltimore, Maryland, 21211, USA. Web: www.press.jhu.edu
SEEDS OF CONTENTION: World Hunger and the Global Controversy over Genetically Modified Crops
Per Pinstrup-Andersen and Ebbe Schioler, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001, 164 pp.
This book takes a critical look at the potential costs and benefits of genetically modified (GM) crops for developing countries. Te authors set out to provide a broad-based assessment of the debate between such groups as agribusiness, farmers, and consumers. The authors choose to locate themselves in solidarity with poor people.
With a foreword by David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World, the book covers uses of agricultural research and the need to expand its boundaries, alternatives to GM crops and the actors involved in setting the agenda for poor people and countries. The authors make the case that people in developing countries should have the right to make their own informed decisions about the use of GM crops. Pin-strup-Andersen and Schioler conclude by acknowledging that GM crops alone will not solve the world’s food problem, but could very well be part of the overall solution. They note also that what works in one part of the world will be different from what works somewhere else.
This book is available from www.press.jhu.edu
GLOBAL FOOD PROJECTIONS TO 2020: Emerging Trends and Alternative Futures
M Rosegrant, M Paisner, S Meijer, J Witcover, 2001, 206 pp.
This large book, another contribution to IFPRI's 2020 Vision For Food, Agriculture, and the Environment Initiative, provides updated forecasts of global food supply and demand, taking into account short-term trends in global markets, but also long-term growth in income, population, agricultural technology and a host of other pressing potential changes. The projections are based on a global food projection model, called IMPACT, developed in the mid 90s. World population is expected to grow from 5.8b people in 1997 to 7.5b people in 2020. Although this represents a slowdown compared to past estimates, it raises serious concerns about whether the world’s food production system will be able to feed so many people. A number of alternative scenarios are examined; these explore the effects of policy, technology, and lifestyle-driven changes in global food markets and the poor. A section on child malnutrition finds that “inevitable, steady progress” is not apparent, although a downward trend in numbers malnourished is evident in developing countries as a whole.
This book is available separately in executive summary form (18 pages), entitled 2020 Global Food Outlook: Trends, Alternatives and Choices, by the same authors. Available from IFPRI, 2033 K Street NW, Washington DC, 20006-1002, USA. Email: ifpri@cgiar.org. Web: www.ifpri.org
STOLEN HARVESTS The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
Vandana Shiva, 146 pp.
Vandana Shiva was one of India’s leading physicists before becoming a renowned environmental thinker and activist. She won the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right to Livelihood Award) in 1993. In Stolen Harvests, Shiva charts the impacts of globalized, corporate agriculture on small farmers, the environment, and the quality of the food we eat. The book is organized in a series of short essays and covers genetically engineered seeds, patents on life, mad cows and sacred cows, shrimp farming, the soy industry (“soy imperialism”) and food democracy. Shiva adds enormously to the debate about genetic engineering and commercial agriculture from a developing-country perspective.
This book is available from Zed Books. http://www.zedbooks.demon.co.uk
HOMESTEAD FOOD PRODUCTION - A Strategy to Combat Malnutrition and Poverty
Helen Keller Worldwide, 2001, 129 pp.
This publication highlights the extensive work of HKI staff and their collaborators throughout the Asia Pacific Region in the area of food based approaches. It is really a resource book for use in advocacy for homestead food production programmes. An overview chapter covers evaluating impacts of food-based programmes, impacts of HKI’s food-based programmes on production and consumption, potential direct and indirect ways for these programmes to decrease micronutrient malnutrition, bioavailability and revised conversion factors, and additional impacts of homestead food production programmes. This is followed by a thematic article by Lynnda Kiess and others on the role of food based strategies in poverty alleviation. Some dozen appendices provide reprints of key articles published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. The publication concludes that homestead food production and social marketing campaigns for increased consumption of vitamin A-rich foods contribute to combating vitamin A deficiency. In addition, the infrastructure that is created or strengthened by these programmes can also be used to deliver other health and nutrition interventions.
Available via www.hkworld.org
SIGHT AND LIFE: Guidebook on Vitamin A in Health and Disease, 2nd edition Donald McLaren and Martin Frigg, 2001, 39 pp.
This booklet is published by the Task Force SIGHT AND LIFE, a humanitarian initiative sponsored by Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, the Swiss pharmaceuticals giant and manufacturer of vitamin A capsules. This is a guidebook designed for health workers and other professionals for whom an understanding of the basic facts and most recent advances in the field of vitamin A is of great relevance to their work. It serves as a companion to the Manual on Vitamin A Deficiency Disorders mentioned in SCN News 21. It gives key messages, with less emphasis on details. The biochemistry of vitamin A, units of measurement, food sources, how the vitamin works, tests for vitamin A deficiency and eye diseases are all covered in simple, clear language. There is a useful glossary. The last chapter deals with control programmes; here, rather more emphasis is given to dosage schedules than to other means of control.
Available by contacting the Task Force SIGHT AND LIFE through their web-site: www.sightandlife.org
MICRONUTRIENT SUPPLEMENTATION THROUGHOUT THE LIFE CYCLE
Edited by Rainer Gross, undated, 22 pp.
This report is based on a workshop held by the Ministry of Health of Brazil and UNICEF in November 1999 in Rio de Janeiro. Thirty-six representatives from government agencies, NGOs, universities and the private sector from 12 countries of South and North America, Africa and Europe participated. The aim of the workshop was to provide the basis for a comprehensive micronutrient supplementation programme for populations in developing countries who suffer simaltaneously from several micronutrient deficiencies. Discussions focused on preventive rather than curative approaches. There was agreement that the age group most in need of supplementation is children 6-24 months. Although supplementation is only one of several options to improve nutritional status of children, a supplementation formulation, the report states, “should be developed because it is useful in a variety of settings and is increasingly requested by authorities in developing countries”. However, the workshop cautioned that a strong case would need to be made when considering compositions other than those currently used in industrialized countries.
Available from UNICEF: www.unicef.org
TARGETING FOR NUTRITION IMPROVEMENT: Resources for Advancing Nutritional Well-being. FAO, Food and Nutrition Division, 2001, 106 pp.
Poorly targeted nutrition programmes can be both ineffective and costly. Therefore, Targeting for Nutrition Improvement fills the need for a practical, general reference guide to the incorporation of targeting techniques into nutrition programmes. This book provides a comprehensive approach to the most common targeting methods and their potential costs and negative effects. It covers methods of planning, design, assessment and monitoring of targeted programmes, including school feeding, food fortification, nutrition education and others. The book concludes with country examples.
Available at the FAO website: www.fao.org/es/esn/nutri.htm
LIVING A SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE FOR OUR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN
Warren Flint and Lisa Houser, Authors Choice Press, 2001, 288 pp.
Protecting global natural resources for future generations is the main theme of this book. The authors put forth a comprehensive sustainable development framework where humans find the means to coexist in a manner that maintains biodiversity and decent environments while also achieving economic prosperity.
The book challenges ordinary people to look at how they live and how that in turn affects nature. The first section presents “the big picture” of what is meant by sustainability. Sections two and three give overviews of ecological processes in danger and how they impact humans. Sections four and five provide recommendations for future actions and solutions. The authors’ concerns are to diminish the material inequity and declining resources by offering alternatives.
The book is available by contacting iUniverse.com, Inc. 5220 S 16th, Ste. 200 Lincoln, NE 68512 USA. Web: www. iuniverse.com
IRON DEFICIENCY ANAEMIA ASSESSMENT, PREVENTION AND CONTROL A guide for programme managers
UNICEF/UNU/WHO, document number WHO/NHD/01.3, 2001, 114 pp.
This publication is based in large part on a consultation convened in Geneva in 1993, jointed organized by the three UN agencies cited as author. Since the consultation significant new data have emerged in key areas (for example, knowledge of the consequences of iron deficiency even in the absence of anaemia), while fortification technology has improved considerably. The book develops the concept that iron status is a continuum from iron deficiency with anaemia, to iron deficiency with no anaemia, to normal iron status with varying amounts of stored iron, and finally to iron overload. There are sections on functional consequences of iron deficiency, economic implications of iron deficiency, prevalence, assessment and choice of indicators, and finally control strategies, including integration of iron control with other micronutrient programmes.
Available from WHO. www.who.int
THE STATE OF WORLD POPULATION 2001 Footprints and Milestones: Population and Environmental Change
UNFPA, 2001, 76 pp.
Population and the environment are of course closely related, but the links between them are complex and varied, and depend on specific circumstances. Generalizations about the negative effects of population growth on the environment are often misleading, this report states. Population scientists long ago abandoned such an approach, yet policy in some cases still proceeds as if it were a reality. This report surveys the good news and the bad. There are chapters on environmental trends, women and the environment, health and the environment (including a sections on heavy metals and nuclear contamination), and actions for sustainable and equitable development. A very helpful annex summarizes global agreements and treaties relevant to the environment. Statistical tables provide an update on progress towards population and development goals.
Available from www.unfpa.org
TECHNICAL CONSULTATION ON LOW BIRTHWEIGHT
UNICEF, undated, 54 pp.
This consultation was organized by the Human Development Network of the World Bank, the US Department of Agriculture and UNICEF and took place in Washington DC in March 2000. Keynote addresses were given by Carol Bellamy of UNICEF, Eduardo Doryan of the World Bank and Eileen Kennedy of the US Department of Agriculture. The purpose of the consultation was to review the scientific literature on the causes and consequence of low birth-weight, but also to explore how to work together. The meeting concluded that activities to address the problem of low birthweight need to take place within the context of the life cycle approach to programming, concentrating on three fundamental time frames: pregnancy, childhood and adolescence. Regarding pregnancy, a continuum of interventions is required, aimed at improving nutritional status, before, during and after pregnancy. The consultation concluded that improving nutritional status of women during pregnancy is unlikely, in field conditions, to have a negative impact on the outcome of the pregnancy, but more information is needed in this area, especially in countries where women are traditionally smaller.
Available from UNICEF. www.unicef.org
THE CHILD IN LATIN AMERICA: Health, Development, and Rights
Edited by Ernest Bartell, and Alejandro
O’Donnell, 2001, 378 pp.
Although most Latin American countries are considered middle-income, child health and well-being outcomes are still poor. This Helen Kellogg Institute publication brings together contributors from the US, Latin America and UNICEF to consider the physical, educational, social, legal and economic status and progress of children throughout Latin America with a special focus on health and rights issues. The contributors show that, as long as children in Latin America remain vulnerable to poverty, malnutrition, injustice and violations of human rights, development must be addressed in ways that will protect children as well as support growing economies. Chapters on nutrition deal with trends in child undernutrition, micronutrient malnutrition, iron deficiency anaemia and community intervention programmes.
The book is available from the University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 46556, USA. Web: www. undpress.nd.edu
